Thanks, Scott. I live in Massachusetts and emailed all who had email addresses on the Ways and Means Committee (where the bill is now). I got general responses from about four and nothing from the others. I am hoping that eager interns who must be in their offices for the summer are keeping tabs. The folks at Vital Records, where the newer records are seem to take their time when they retrieve records. Even when the price just for researching jumps up, service is still not good. I wonder if it someone who works there or town clerks who have developed this bill. I can't see a state legislator coming up with anything like that on his own, especially with so many items that really need to be addressed. Just in case the bill come out of Ways and Means, I emailed my state rep who got back to me saying he will vote against it, but our state rep happens to be in the minority party. I would hope those in the majority party would be against it. Jan ----- Original Message ----- From: "scott humphrey" <sactoscott@juno.com> To: <IRL-TIPPERARY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 10:16 PM Subject: New England (MA) vitals and pending legislation > Hi List, > I learned recently of pending legislation (soon to reach a vote) in the > state of Massachusetts (MA) that would restrict access to all birth > records since 1915 and all marriage & death records since 1955. > > Many might think this doesn't apply to them but this state and its > history to Ireland, holdings of vital records and many forms of records > are in danger of not being available. My fear is that it will (as > legislation often does) snowball with impacts on other records, other > states or even plant ideas with other countries. > > I am 3000 miles away myself but made some e-mail contacts and heard back > from a MA Representative that expressed his displeasure with such > legislation. We might have a few more days to make an impact and I'd be > glad to pass along any information that I have received if it will help > you in making legislative inquiries. > > Slainte! > Scott >